Jets snap Canadiens' 5-game winning streak in wild back-and-forth affair
Teams combine for 3 stretches of 4 unanswered goals in Winnipeg victory
Mark Scheifele scored twice and had an assist, spoiling a spirited Montreal comeback and leading the Winnipeg Jets to an 8-4 victory over the Canadiens on Tuesday night.
Pierre-Luc Dubois also had a goal and two assists, and Paul Stastny, Andrew Copp, Adam Lowry, Nate Schmidt and Evgeny Svechnikov also scored for Winnipeg. Goalie Connor Hellebuyck had 31 saves.
"That was a crazy game, a lot of back and forth," Dubois said. "Mistakes, penalties. Our job is to be the best we can and stay [consistent] the whole time. But when momentum swings like that and penalties and four on fours, it can get a bit more complicated.
"To keep going and not panic too much feels really good. At this point of the year, we'll take the two points and be happy with it."
Josh Anderson had a hat trick for Montreal, which had its five-game winning streak snapped, and Artturi Lehkonen also scored. Sam Montembeault made 17 saves on 23 shots before being replaced by Andrew Hammond at 5:49 of the third. Hammond made five saves on six shots.
WATCH | Anderson nets 1st career hat trick:
"Anytime you start a game like that down four goals, it's difficult, but the guys hung in there and we battled back as a team and were able to tie the game," Anderson said, adding later, "there were too many penalties."
The Jets scored 36 seconds apart to open the game. Svechnikov tipped a pass from Schmidt past Montembeault at 5:21. Schmidt then upped the mark to 2-0 with a point shot that beat Montembault.
The Jets held a 4-0 lead by midway in the first. But Montreal scored three straight in the span of about seven minutes to pull to within one before the opening 20 minutes had ended.
The Canadiens tied the game at 4 just four minutes into the second period with Anderson's third goal, but Copp gave Winnipeg a 5-4 lead on the power play with 2:43 left in the period.
WATCH | Momentum swings in Jets favour:
Winnipeg took a 6-4 lead early in the third period with Scheifele's power-play goal. He banked in a shot off Montembeault's back from behind the net.
"I think we self-inflicted a lot," Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. "I think we took four or five defensive zone penalties. It was really hard tonight to manage the bench in terms of having a nice flow, so to speak. I obviously haven't coached much at this level, but it was a hard one to manage, just all the different scenarios that were happening."
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